The Quiet Life

Andrew Towner traded a globe-trotting career for a peaceful mountainside in north-west regional Victoria — and found his forever home.

Sometimes we don’t need to seek out our purpose; if we’re lucky, opportunities present themselves. And so it was for Andrew Towner, 58, with his 27-acre (11-hectare) property Braeside Mt Macedon, on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country in the north-western Victorian town of Mount Macedon. “I didn’t search for this place,” Andrew says, “it found me.”

A self-described “hospitality tragic”, Andrew has dedicated his life to looking after others, and carries incredible memories of a globe-trotting career spanning decades in hotels and high-end restaurants. Raised in Lake Macquarie near Newcastle, Andrew completed hotel school in the late 1980s, followed by a corporate traineeship in Sydney. He completed further study in the US and Switzerland, before heading to the UK in the early ‘90s. There he worked at the stately Stapleford Park Country House Hotel in Leicestershire, and The Criterion Restaurant on Piccadilly Circus in London. “An amazing experience,” Andrew says.

His career then took him around the Asia-Pacific, and by 2011, after a long stint based in Singapore, Andrew decided he was ready to settle into a quieter life. “Time just flies, at that stage I was in my mid-forties,” he says. “I was travelling all the time… I lived out of a suitcase.” Returning to Australia he found he didn’t have a place to call home. A chance visit to the Macedon Ranges in 2012 changed everything. “I immediately felt there was something special about this part of the world,” Andrew says.

Special, and perhaps strangely familiar. Around this time Andrew uncovered a drawing he’d done when he was about 16 years old, of a country cottage with big windows and a wide verandah. “It’s this cottage — spooky!” Andrew says with a smile, referring to the historic farmhouse at Braeside Mt Macedon he bought and settled into in 2014. “I always wanted to be in the country, and I always had a vision of something like this.”

Braeside Mt Macedon was once part of a larger estate called Penryn, the remainder of which still exists next door. Andrew’s residence was built in the very early 1900s, and has been transformed over the decades into the modern Australian farmhouse it is today, while retaining much of its historic charm. Andrew’s favourite sit-spot is the sun-drenched, timber-lined dining room, which he updated and painted a stylish grey. There’s a view through the picture windows onto the rambling gardens, with a dense backdrop of bushland beyond. The dining room was once part of the wide, wrap-around verandah that encircled the original building, before the previous owners of 40 years enclosed the back part of the house, and made other updates to the property, which Andrew has refreshed and put his own stamp on.

Andrew’s cosy lounge room features leather Chesterfield armchairs and vintage decor, including a stack of retro suitcases and a display of rustic farm tools on the walls, as well as several family heirlooms. With a crackling fire in the original fireplace, the room is warm and welcoming, but one would never imagine that a cafe was once run in this space by those long-term former owners. And if we look back further, Andrew says there was a time when an unorthodox farmer kept hay in the house for the horse that roamed the back paddock. “During that time it was allowed to deteriorate,” he laments.

Now there are no horses on-site — just two cheeky alpacas (Sydney and Anzac), who keep the grass down, a frisky flock of chickens that provide an abundance of fresh eggs, and a thriving orchard producing stone fruits and berries galore. Meanwhile the rambling English cottage-style gardens are the icing on the cake of this picturesque spot, where the four seasons put on a spectacular rotating display. “Springtime here is all bulbs: daffodils, jonquils, then poppies and tulips,” Andrew says. “In summer it’s all drying off. Then it comes through to Autumn, and that’s when the trees take over — you cannot beat the colour, it is magnificent. And winter has its own beauty.”

Towering Blackwood trees line the driveway entrance to the property, while clusters of golden ash and liquidambar are dotted around one side. On the other, delicate Japanese maples, grand old gums and 120-year-old oaks watch over the dam, which is full of trout. “I’m a mad fly-fisherman,” Andrew explains, admitting he’s yet to drop in a line, as his so-called quieter life is just too busy. “It takes a lot to look after a place like this,” he says. So he hires a couple of “fantastic” locals to help him stay on top of things. “I may not be going into the office every day, but I’ve never worked so hard in my life!”

Andrew hosts visitors to the region from Melbourne, interstate, and even overseas, in three on-site guest cottages. “It makes me very proud to live in the Macedon Ranges and to be able to share what we have here with folks that are visiting — there’s a lot on offer,” he says, citing the area’s ample eateries, wineries and natural attractions. “I really enjoy seeing folks who have come up from town and they’re fried… and within a few days they feel like they’re a local.”

There’s no doubt this mountainside oasis is good for the soul, and Andrew now has a greater sense of achievement living away from the rat-race. “There were days when I was working in my old life, and you’d get to the end of the day and think ‘What have I done?’”. He looks forward to continuing his journey in this special part of the world: “I’ve been very lucky in my life — I’ve worked hard, loved what I’ve done, but it was time to settle and connect, and that’s what happened here. There’s something about being up here, I’m very passionate about it, and 11 years later I’m still as excited as ever.”